2017 NCAA Division III football season


The 2017 NCAA Division III football season was the portion of the 2017 college football season organized by the NCAA at the Division III level in the United States. Under Division III rules, teams were eligible to begin play on August 31, 2017. The season ended with the NCAA Division III Football Championship, also known as the Stagg Bowl, on December 15, 2017 at Salem Football Stadium in Salem, Virginia. Mount Union earned their 13th national title, defeating defending national champions Mary Hardin–Baylor.

Conference changes and new programs

The 2017 season saw several significant changes to the landscape of Division III football:
School2016 conference2017 conference
Alfred StateIndependentECFC
AustinSCACSAA
BeckerECFCCCC Football
BrevardSAC USA South
CatholicODACNEWMAC
ChicagoSAA & UAAMWC
Coast GuardNEFCNEWMAC
CurryNEFCCCC Football
DeanUSCAAECFC
EndicottNEFCCCC Football
Maine MaritimeNEFCNEWMAC
Merchant MarineLiberty LeagueNEWMAC
MITNEFCNEWMAC
NicholsNEFCCCC Football
NorwichECFCNEWMAC
Salve ReginaNEFCCCC Football
SpringfieldLiberty LeagueNEWMAC
SouthwesternSCACASC
Texas LutheranSCACASC
Trinity SCACSAA
Washington SAA & UAAUAA only
Western New EnglandNEFCCCC Football
WPILiberty LeagueNEWMAC

A full list of Division III teams can be viewed on the D3football website.

Conference standings

Preseason

Overseas exhibition games

Because Division III football teams do not award scholarships, they are permitted by NCAA rules to occasionally travel outside the United States to tour and play exhibition matches. Several teams took off-season trips in late spring 2017 and played primarily non-college club teams, with the exception of Illinois Wesleyan, who played a Japanese college team. All of the games were won by the Division III schools, which are displayed in bold.
DateLocationNCAA DIII TeamHosting TeamScore
May 20, 2017Milngavie, Scotland, UKCMSEast Kilbride Pirates
73–6
May 21, 2017Ferrara, ItalySouthwesternFerrara Aquile
94–0
May 21, 2017Shanghai, ChinaPuget SoundShanghai Titans
84–6
May 27, 2017Barcelona, SpainJohn CarrollSenior Spanish League All-Stars
91–7
May 27, 2017Belfast, Northern Ireland, UKCentreBelfast Trojans
47–0
June 3, 2017Landsberg, GermanyRose-HulmanLandsberg X-Press
82–0
June 4, 2017Tokyo, JapanIllinois WesleyanWaseda
33–6

Postseason

Twenty-five conferences met the requirements for an automatic bid to the playoffs. Besides the NESCAC, which does not participate in the playoffs, two conferences had no Pool A bid. The American Southwest, which had fallen below the required seven members in 2013 and lost its Pool A bid after the two-year grace period, was in the second year of the two-year waiting period, having attained seven members in 2016; the NEWMAC, having just begun football sponsorship, was in the first year of the waiting period. Despite losing three members, the Liberty League retained its Pool A bid, but entered the grace period.
Schools not in Pool A conferences were eligible for Pool B. The number of Pool B bids was determined by calculating the ratio of Pool A conferences to schools in those conferences and applying that ratio to the number of Pool B schools. The 25 Pool A conferences contained 215 schools, an average of 8.6 teams per conference. Eighteen schools were in Pool B, enough for two bids.
The remaining five playoff spots were at-large teams.

Playoff bracket

* Home team † Overtime Winner

Bowl games